First off, apologies for the long rant. It's a by-product of being a frustrated lifelong Illini fan.
But to your point about Martin, Matt.........I'm hoping this happens, and the overarching reason is pretty cut and dried.........RECRUITING, RECRUITING, RECRUITING!
We've all bemoaned the massive recruiting misses (perhaps miscalculations is a more apt term), even dating back to the late Henson and Kruger eras (remember the '98 class, and missing out on Richardson, Maggette and Simmons?), but certainly elevated to "horror show" status under Weber and Groce.
If Groce landed any one of Jackson, Snider, Brunson, Evans or Moore, this thread would likely not even exist. Heck, even avoiding a "lack of institutional control" over players like Nunn and Paul, we're likely comfortably in the conversation for Big Ten contention and an NCAA tourney berth. But, combining failures on both of those fronts surely signals the deathknell for Groce's future at Illinois.
I grew up watching the Henson teams of the 80's, and often times there would be little to no offensive scheme on display. His teams were just so athletic, talented and had that junkyard dog mentality, that they simply transcended some of Henson's shortcomings. Still, they had an overall team identity, and commitment on defense, for which Henson deserves some credit. But looking back on that great Flyin' Illini team of '89, for example, people often joked about how their best offense was a missed shot, followed by an offensive rebound and putback.
Moreover, on the defensive side of the ball, they surrendered an unseemly opponents' FG% that year of 46.1%. Yes that team which had the reputation of being so suffocating on defense. Of course, they shot over 51% themselves, which still ranks among the highest in school history, but the point remains..........let the players do their thing, and don't stultify their natural instincts with overcoaching, like so many head coaches are guilty of these days.
We are staring at the strong likelihood, both on the court and off the court, futility that has not been seen since the program's lowest ebb in the mid-1970's. Last year, in the inaugural year of the completely renovated $175 million State Farm Center, yielded the lowest attendance figures since 1977! And if Groce fails to make the tourney for a 4th consecutive season, that would mark the first time in four decades that has happened.
That is truly unconscionable, and utterly inexcusable for a Top 15 legacy program that Illinois has historically been.
The hiring of Martin (if he's in fact truly interested in leaving Berkeley) would go a long way in not only retaining our prime recruit at the moment, Jeremiah Tilmon, but more than likely our entire 2017 recruiting class.
To boot, I would bet the farm that ESL metro area product Mark Smith would immediately verbal to UI soon after the hire. Additionally, UI with Martin at the helm would more than solidify our standing with '19 ESL recruits Liddell and Hargrove as well. We are already favorites with Groce as the HC.
If that isn't enough, Martin is involved with 2018 Illini target Ayo Dosunmu from Morgan Park, the same school Charlie Moore attended (currently a star in Martin's offense as a true freshman). Not sure how that would play out as far as Moore's input on Martin (re: Dosunmu), were he to depart for Illinois, leaving the Cal program in the dust. OTOH, Dosunmu will see that Martin is the type of coach that gives freshmen ample opportunities from the word go........unlike the coffee bean salesman we currently have as the face of our program, who is all too content in retarding the development of talented freshmen in favor of "seasoned" veterans.
Finally, Martin is heavily involved with 6-10, 2019 PF Jordan Brown, one of the truly elite players in the country, who has been compared to Kevin Durant. Now, it's unlikely that Brown, who is being recruited almost exclusively by west coast powers like UCLA and Arizona, would see greater opportunity at Illinois under Martin than at those proven, warm weather blue bloods, but stranger things have happened. With Tilmon likely still on board, and Brown projected to be a one and done, they would make for an unbelievable tandem, and Brown would only have a one year layover enduring a Champaign winter before heading off to the NBA, and, most importantly, would not have to play a minute at center in his brief college stint.
With all the caveats regarding Martin's plodding offensive style (courtesy of Keady), he would inject some much needed defensive toughness back into this program, and be competitive against the top programs in the country (his current team is 13-5/4-2 in the Pac 10, and lost tough games to ranked teams Virginia and Arizona at home - by 3 and 5 points, respectively - and by 10 to NC contender UCLA on the road, a team that has scored 80 or more points in all but two of its 19 games, and exceeded 100 pts six times).
Compare those results with what we've witnessed under Groce in just the last few weeks alone!
Getting Martin on board, immediately upon completion of this season, gives Illinois the best chance at not only retaining our current recruiting momentum in the part of the state producing some of the best talent (Martin's own backyard), but it gives us someone who will make us much more relevant going up against the dicey politics in the Chicago scene and with the gregarious/egomaniacal inner city HS/AAU coaches, something we really haven't had since Jimmy Collins was here landing the prime talent in Chicago. As an added bonus, Martin now has recruiting roots firmly planted in Los Angeles as well.
I also think it's unavoidable to not contextualize such a hire within the this racially charged climate we presently find ourselves in nationally, especially in the state of Illinois. The prospects of bringing in an African-American basketball coach AT THIS TIME, (to go along with the Lovie Smith hiring in football), will pay huge dividends from a PR standpoint, however politically correct that may come across.
But look at the PC history we're talking about here, if we're going to be "on the level" about such topics. University brass capitulated to lobby groups, both within and outside the UI, who were ultimately victorious in jettisoning Chief Illiniwek as the school's mascot, so it's part and parcel of not only the university's protocol, but of a much wider socio-political agenda that runs throughout this somewhat divided state.
And to borrow Groce's hackneyed euphemism, Whitman might be envisioning the possibility of a Martin hire as the future path to get this program "cleaned up," and fast!